Assisted deaths in Oregon no longer called 'suicid

[Amelia]

Assisted deaths in Oregon no longer called 'suicide'

Monday, October 16, 2006

By David Krough

Associated Press

A terminally ill patient who ends his or her life under the Oregon Death With Dignity Act will be listed as a "physician-assisted death" instead of suicide, officials said Monday.

The one-word change had been sought by advocates of the landmark state law that allows dying patients to ask their doctors to provide medication the patients can administer to themselves to end their lives, if they are capable of making a sound decision.

The advocacy group Compassion & Choices said the act, as it is spelled out in Oregon law, "shall not, for any purpose, constitute suicide, assisted suicide, mercy killing or homicide, under the law."

The state previously had been using the more common phrase, "physician-assisted suicide," to describe deaths under the act.

But now it will use the term physician-assisted death for reports and on the state Web site to "make it consistent with the statute," said Bonnie Widerberg, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Services.

Katrina Hedburg, with the agency's Public Health Division, said Compassion & Choices did not threaten legal action but did approach the state with its lawyers.

"We did not believe it was in the taxpayer's best interest to defend something the statute explicitly says it is not," Hedburg said, adding the change likely will be unpopular with opponents of the act.

Supporters of the law argued the term was inaccurate -- patients who have fought to stay alive and choose to end their lives are not the same as people otherwise choosing to commit suicide.

Voters passed the act in 1994 and rejected an effort to repeal it in 1997, about the same time it was supported by a key U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

It was signed into law in 1998 by then-Gov. John Kitzhaber, who is a physician.

[Naomi]

Interesting ... wonder how this will evolve.

[Gerr]

What do they call it now? Suasside?

Gerry